One of my values is giving back to organizations and people who are changing the world. To implement this in my business I created my very own TOAP Gives Back program. Each month, Tales of a Peanut, Inc. gives 10% of its profits to support various charities, organizations, and causes. As you learn more about these great organizations and causes may you, too, become inspired to play a part in changing the world.

Compassion provides holistic support for over 1.2 million children in developing nations around the world through Compassion-assisted, church-based child development centers. In these centers, focus is given to the child’s mind, body, spirit, and heart. By speaking to each of these areas in a child, Compassion works to bring them out of poverty and not just sustain them through it. In addition to recurring donations when another organization isn’t chosen, over 200 Christmas cards have been sent to unsponsored children to help make sure they know that they are loved and prayed for even without a sponsor.

Karama Collection is an organization is made up of African artisan partners who create beautiful, quality products and volunteers who sell those products and share the stories of the artisans. Karama believes in DIGNITY for everyone and believe that much of that dignity comes through creative, purposeful work. They are passionate about women, kids, creativity, poverty alleviation, fair wages, quality hand crafted merchandise, faith and really deep belly laughs. Additionally, in order to bring more awareness to this company and their story, I hosted an eParty where the participants received a discount on their purchase.

CRU is a caring community passionate about connecting people to Jesus Christ. Originally started as a college outreach, CRU has expanded to reach more than 6.5 billion people and exposing them to the gospel through a variety of ministries. TOAPGivesBack works directly to support a family working with CRU through a percentage of profits from chosen months and 50% of the profits of the INSPIRE notecard sets.

The Color Blue and Hope is a place where mothers who have lost an infant or are on bed rest can receive encouragement, love and hope through thoughtfully filled gift boxes. I was proud to join Jenna Dail and support her new venture to bring personal items and thoughtful gifts to women in the hospital on bedrest with the Box of Hope. My initial donation went to help fund the initial set of boxes delivered and I will continue to support this amazing organization as it grows.

The Melissa George Neonatal Memorial Fund raises money to buy critically needed technology for the Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children’s Regional Neonatal ICU. Each year the fund holds two events, the Miracle Bash and Swim for Melissa, to raise money for the fund to buy the equipment needed to save the tiny babies that are admitted to the RNICU annually. I was proud to continue my support of this organization with a monthly gift and my two oldest children joined to swim in the event to honor Melissa’s memory.

The Hobbs family are dear friends of mine and they set out in late 2015 to adopt a little girl from China. The monetary costs of undertaking an international adoption are great and they embarked on a number of fundraising methods to trust God for the raising of those funds. To help in their fundraising, I designed a new collection called Hobbs from which the family received 100% of the profits. In addition, the family received the standard TOAPGivesBack amount of 10% of the shop profits for the month. In August 2016, Ella became the newest member of the Hobbs family and she is doing well adjusting to the rest of her life.

KiraKira teaches the fundamentals of design thinking, engineering, and entrepreneurship through the creation of virtual and physical products. They arm young girls with the confidence to pursue careers in technology and change the world for the better. As an engineer myself, providing young women with the tools, education, and inspiration to enter the field is important to me which is why KiraKira was a perfect fit for TOAPGivesBack. In addition to the monthly donation, I also joined in as a Kickstarter backer for this groundbreaking company.